Top 10 Most Popular Posts on SearchDecoder Blog in 2013

Now that 2013 has come to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the posts, authors and community members that made the biggest impacts on the SearchDecoder blog throughout the year!

The list below includes top posts based on unique pageviews, social sharing, number of comments, and linking root domains. We also highlight the top authors and contributors whose blog posts performed best last year.

On top of that, I included editor’s pick section on the bottom to highlight couple great reads that didn’t get into top 10 list based on data and engagement metrics.

If there are any posts you didn’t get a chance to read (or any epic posts you can’t wait to re-read), this is your resource to bookmark.

I’m excited to hear your thoughts on your favorite posts, why you think they did so well, and what you’d like to see more of in 2014!

The Top 10 Most Popular Posts on SearchDecoder Blog in 2013

Keyword research is an integral part of any online marketing campaign. Without knowing what keywords to target, how can you effectively optimize your website, target phrases for link building, or know what content to develop for your audience? Jessica Tomeszewski (@t0maz0oskii) provides 10 innovative keyword research tools to enhance your keyword discovery process, and explains how to use them.

Featured in Moz Top 10, Jessica’s post was by far the most popular blog post on SearchDecoder last year. In numbers:

Content is King- you heard it before. While it is hard to argue against this statement, content marketing is often not included in marketing budgets. The fact of the matter is that content is key to marketing online. No matter how well a product or service is advertised, there must be credibility behind it. It is about building the relationship between your consumers and your business that translates into business objectives. Dan Lee (@DeeLee91) provided 8 content marketing statistics to prove the importance of content marketing as a marketing channel.

Understanding how and why users click links on page one of Google gives you critical insight into boosting your click through rate. A recent Google CTR Study: How User Intent Impacts Google Click-Through Rates conducted by Catalyst is an excellent example of how one can use data to uncover trends and insights. In fact, this study shows that having the most compelling listing in the SERPs could be more important than “ranking #1.

Although many social media strategies work across global markets, China deserves a targeted approach because of its unique social media landscape. If you are thinking about the most popular way to make your company noticed in China, the answer is Sina Weibo. Conan Guyo (@conangyq) how to leverage social media in China and win on Sina Weibo.

There is no shortage of articles on the Internet attempting to cover various content marketing tips and strategies. Almost always, however, the case studies and examples cited are tailored towards B2C, leaving B2B marketers to fend for themselves to try and adapt the various ‘learnings’ to their respective businesses. The fact of the matter is that B2B content marketing is inherently different. As such, what typically works for B2C won’t necessarily translate for B2B, and vice versa. Ayaz Lakhani (@a_lakhani) explains.

“Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme.”
Think of it like panning for gold – where you have look through piles of dirt and rock, examine each little piece in an attempt to find that ‘golden nugget’. Lisha Kappish (@LishKapish) explains.

Looking for reading ideas to advance your Internet marketing skills in 2014? Do you want to learn about the major shifts in digital media that have changed the game for marketers and businesses? Check out the 8 Internet marketing books below I recommend reading next year that have influenced my approach to marketing, advanced my career, and represent the ideas I blog about. On the list, you will find couple timeless classics that every marketer should read, as well as more recent publications that I am planning to read in 2014.

You can’t do SEO right without a set of tools to track, measure and automate your marketing efforts. To save you time picking the right solution for your business, I included a list of 30 SEO of tools I have evaluated over years that I recommend for small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs online. The list provides an ‘SEO starter toolkit‘ for developing a winning inbound marketing campaign. All the tools are free or include a free trail. You will not find any affiliate links here.

Check out the deck I presented in my keynote at the How to Get Funding From the Shark II conference hosted by Smart Money Entrepreneurs in NYC to learn the winning bootstrap online marketing strategies for start-ups and entrepreneurs:

We’ve been talking a lot recently about Content Marketing and Content Strategy on Search Decoder, not just because we think it’s absolutely exciting (OK, maybe we do), but because it is important to understand the major role it plays in engaging and establishing relationships with consumers. But, Social Media Strategy & Tactics my dear friends, is another equally exciting aspect of Inbound Marketing and we know you want to hear more about it. Keisha Gittens (@KeishaSG) and Megan Brown (@thatGirlMegan) explain.

Makes me very proud that the top two blog posts were authored by my teammates at Profero, while four out of top 10 posts were authored by the NYU students who are members of the Inbound Marketing Clinic.

Below I included Social Crawlytics report to back-up the 10 Ten list with some data. If you would like to learn how to pull social sharing metrics of your content (or that of your competitors) check out our blog post on how to use SocialCrawlytics, a free social media analaytics tool.

Editor’s Picks

In the post 100% (Not provided) world, the shift SEOs have undergone is moving from a keyword centric world to one that is content/page centric. In addition, one interesting by-product of losing keyword data in analytics is that rankings have made resurgence as a metric. Says Nathan Safran (@nathan_safran), Research Director at Conductor, who recently sat with Jagruti Bansal (@adwebspark), SEO Manager at AT&T, to solve the 100% (non provided) dilemma.

Reddit is Internet culture. It is everything from a Q&A site to a support group to a porn site. Marketers need to understand it before they engage in spam, which tendsclayburn-griffin-squared to be their first instinct on Reddit. You can read reports and do some research, but immersing yourself in the Reddit community is the best way to “get it”. Explains Clayburn Griffin (@clayburn) in one of the Q&A with SearchDecoder.

Content marketing is one of the hottest topics in business in 2013, and rightly so. With about 160 million blogs online and 4 billion hours of video being watched every month on YouTube, there is, without a doubt, a huge opportunity for businesses to connect with their consumers via compelling content. However, in a world where 80% of consumers use search for a product before purchasing it, brands need a holistic approach to content marketing that emphasizes creative and performance equally.

SEO has become a big picture initiative, yet most businesses still operate in silos. Affectionately referred to as the SEO’s Don Draper, Mike King (@ipullrank) explains how to think about your SEO holistically to accomplish exponential growth for your business.

I sat with some of the best SEOs and content marketers out there from the iAcquire inbound marketing team to talk about recent trends and strategies in content marketing and search engine optimization. We did an innovative interactive panel-format lecture for graduate students at NYU, where I teach a search marketing class within M.S. in Integrated Marketing program. You can both watch the YouTube video below and read the transcript of the panel discussion, which includes a lot of supportive materials via iAcquire and Profero.

Which SearchDecoder blog post did you like most?

About Matthew Capala

Matthew Capala is an Internet marketer, growth consultant, entrepreneur, speaker and author. He is the founder of SearchDecoder.com, Adj. Professor at NYU, and Author of "SEO Like I'm 5".